Our leadership team has written fifteen Rocks for this quarter because everything feels like a high priority. How do we narrow down our focus without letting critical initiatives slip through the cracks?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If everything is important, then nothing is important. Having fifteen Rocks on your leadership team is a classic symptom of a lack of focus, and it almost guarantees that you will end the quarter with most of them incomplete. In EOS, less is more. The leadership team should have no more than three to seven company Rocks per quarter, with three to five being the sweet spot. To narrow this down, you must run IDS on your list of priorities during your quarterly session. Start by listing all fifteen potential Rocks on the whiteboard. Then, begin the process of combining, eliminating, and prioritizing. Ask the hard question: if we could only accomplish three things this quarter to move the business forward, what would they be? Challenge the team to identify which items are actually weekly To-Dos or operational tasks rather than true ninety day strategic Rocks. Push some initiatives to the next quarter or assign them as individual departmental Rocks. By limiting your focus to the most critical priorities, you create the alignment and execution capacity needed to actually cross the finish line.